Sometimes even the most seemingly harmless bugs can cause tremendous amounts of property damage. Take for instance the lovebug. Anybody who lives in the state of Florida is most certainly familiar with lovebugs. It is well known to many residents of Florida that these bugs can damage people’s vehicles. But the full extent of lovebug damage is not widely known. Since the lovebug season is quickly approaching it may be a good idea to review some of the damages that lovebugs can inflict on vehicles. To put it simply, lovebugs can cause both cosmetic and engine damage to a vehicle.

We all know what a vehicle looks like after it is driven through a particularly muggy area. The front hood, windshield and radiator all become smeared with insect guts. Only certain insects tend to smash head-first into vehicles. It can happen to any insect, especially flying insects, but lovebugs may make impact with moving vehicles more often than any other type of bug in some areas. Typically, you can simply wash the collective guts off of your car with no problem or lasting damage, but lovebugs are different. These bugs can cause the paint on a person’s vehicle to corrode as the fats contained within lovebugs are somewhat caustic. In addition to this, lovebugs can hit a vehicle’s radiator, which can cause the radiator to malfunction. This would quickly cause a vehicle to overheat, and eventually the engine would die.

According to auto-body experts, if your vehicle has an army of dead bug guts smeared all over the front hood, then you will want to wash the insect guts off your car within twenty four hours. There are many insects with caustic bodily materials, but none are as acidic as the fats found in lovebugs. For the first twenty four hours after a lovebug makes impact with a vehicle, it body fat pH is neutral, but as time progresses past twenty four hours, a lovebugs internal fats become more acidic, resulting in paint and clearcoat corrosion.

Have you ever noticed permanent cosmetic damage to your car after waiting too long to clean off dead insect corpses that had collected on your front hood while driving?